Posted 04/05/2024
by Louise Westacott
Our five tiny
Canute Caterpillars arrived this week ! The children are going to look after
them in the hope we can release them as butterflies at the end of this half
term. They are currently in a pot with their food and once they spin
their chrysalis they will be moved into a netted home…we will keep you updated
!
In English the children edited their story map and created their own characters following the plot of Little Red Riding Hood, we had some really interesting replacements for the wolf – a crocodile ! a bull ! to name a few, they all used some fantastic adjectives to describe their villians. Reception children have been enjoying writing about Superworm in Drawing Club.
In Maths, Reception children have been doing doubling and odd & even activities, year 1 have stormed their way through the multiplication and division unit and enjoyed being outside practically sharing and grouping everyday objects, year 2 have been weighing classroom items and estimating what measurement would be most appropriate, grams or kilograms?
We took full advantage of the sunny weather on Wednesday and did our mini beast hunt in forest school. We then used our mini beast data to digitally create some bar charts for ICT, showing the quantities of the five most popular creatures.
In RE we have been discussing the Five Pillars of Islam and comparing activities Muslims do that we also do, like celebrating key events with our families and giving money to charity.
In PSHE we discussed the qualities of being a good friend and relied on some of these qualities in PE when the children worked in pairs. One had to direct their blindfolded partner to move items around the playground, clear communication was key, they all succeeded and had a lot of fun!
We hope you
all have a lovely long weekend, hopefully with abit of sunshine!
Best wishes The Canute Class Team
Posted 03/05/2024
by Suzanne Porter
Today, we
thoroughly enjoyed welcoming the RLNI to school; we learnt lots about beach and
water safety. Our favourite parts were the role play of saving a casualty in
water and using a lifeguard’s radio to ask for further assistance.
This week
in our English lessons, the children developed their narrative plan. They boxed
up the Beowulf text and planned their own using a similar story line. Each
child improved their understanding of subordinate clauses and used relative
clauses to add extra detail about their characters to their plans.
In our
science lesson this week, we loved exploring irreversible changes. We learnt about
new materials being produced and some of their useful uses.
In our history
lesson, the children learnt about Viking life and how they travelled long
distances across the sea.
As part of
our art lesson this week, we built on our understanding of drawing techniques and
applied these to our drawings of a Viking longship.
During our
RE lesson, the children learnt about the key beliefs in Islam. They learnt
about the five pillars and then thought about their own core beliefs.
In PSHE, we
continued our focus on relationships. The children thought about the connection
between thoughts, feelings and actions in different scenario and learnt ways to
support themselves and others in difficult situations.
Homework
has been set on Mathletics and Spelling Shed. Please also remember to read
regularly and that we have Times Table Rockstar logins.
Points to remember:
Bank holiday
Monday 6th May
PE on Friday this week
SATs week-
13th- 16th May
Residential
12th-14th June 2024
Posted 03/05/2024
by Karen Taylor
A jam packed week in Penhallow this week!
We started the week by learning all about how to group animals based on what they ate and whether this made them a herbivore, carnivore or a omnivore (like us).
In English, we are beginning to research our minibeast, ready to write a plan for our fact file.
Maths has been full of activity this week where the Reception children are learning what happens to numbers when we add more or take some away. Year 1s are flying through their multiplication and division topic where we are learning to count in 2s, 5s and 10s as well as understanding that it is easier to count in groups if they are equal. We also learned what makes up an array, recognising lots of new maths vocabulary like row and column.
Kai received his 33 badge this week in 99 club, well done! It is getting tougher to achieve these badges now but I know with plenty of practice we will get them in no time! There are plenty of chances to practice these maths skills on twinklGO! Ensure you are also keeping up with your KIRFs that were attached in last week's blog.
We have enjoyed two really important assemblies this week. The first was on Tuesday when we learned what it meant to be sun safe. Please send your child in with some labelled sun cream, a named sun hat and a drink every day now that we are finally seeing some brighter days! In Penhallow, we love to take our learning outside! It will also be very soon that we take our PE sessions in our wonderful school swimming pool! Remember that our PE days are Wednesday and Friday so please make sure your children have their PE kit in school for these days. Our second assembly was on beach safety with the R.N.L.I. Sam and Harry taught us all about what to do to stay safe on the beach this summer.
PSHE was so much fun this week where the children learned that it is ok to say no to physical touch as a greeting, there are lots of other ways to greet each other and we enjoyed making some new ways of greeting our friends.
Music was fantastic fun! We leaned all about the keyboard and what different sounds we could make with them.
Well done to our 'People of the Week' this week, all showing us how to be 'Excellent' in their learning! Sonny, Dexter, Evie D and Kai, well done to all of you!
Enjoy a wonderful, longer weekend! If you get the chance, pop onto TwinklGO! where you can play lots of games which will help you with your learning. We will see you on Tuesday morning for another week of fun!
Mrs Taylor, Mrs G, Miss Colton, Miss Cullingford and Miss Hodge.
Posted 03/05/2024
by Ruth Smith
We have started our learning about our new focus story book 'We're going on a bear hunt' and when we went to St Anne's we listened to the story together before creating some bear faces.
The bear faces had to have one wet, shiny nose, two big, furry ears, two big goggly eyes; we're not scared!!
Fortunately, the Grannies and Grandads at St Anne's weren't scared either!
Posted 03/05/2024
by Rebecca Hughes
The children have worked hard in English this week to imitate the story
of Mr Gumpy’s Outing. With a lot of imagination, the story became Mrs Gumpy’s
Outing and the children thought of many different animals to fit the story. The
year 1 children then spent time writing a part of the imitated story and the
foundation children worked hard to draw and label a picture from the imitated
story. The year 1’s have also planned a new version of the story and are
getting ready to write their stores next week.
In Maths the year 1 children have been exploring volume and capacity.
They have enjoyed filing jugs and cups and exploring the capacity of an object
and the different volume of water they could put in the jugs!
The foundation children have been working on doubles this week and have
learnt a brilliant rhyme to help them remember.
In PSHE this week the children explored different relationships. They
looked at different pictures and tried to guess the relationship between the
people in the picture and whether it looked kike a good or not so good
relationship. The children then worked in groups and role played how they like
to greet known adults and their peers. Look out for the new greetings on the
door soon!
The children have been exploring so much learning this week and continue
to make wonderful progress and try their best!
We hope you all have a great bank holiday weekend and we will see you
all on Tuesday
Foundation /year 1 team.
Posted 03/05/2024
by Jane Wills
We have finally completed our city life enquiry and have moved on to studying the Ancient Greeks. This gives the children a chance to become historians again to ask questions about the past, explain how we can find answers and use their natural curiosity to link previous history learning. The children have already discovered that the Ancient Greeks were advanced architects building palaces and temples compared with the Celts in Britain.
Writing
This week, we have used knowledge of the city to produce poetry. The children have enjoyed the freedom of playing with words yet following some strict rules to produce poems in the style of The Sound Collector by Roger McGough. Year 5 and Year 6 children have explored balanced arguments and produced their own considering whether city or village life is best. We will share the work with peers in Friday’s recital session.
Swimming
We have another 2 sessions left of this block, next week 8th May and the final session 22nd May. 15th May we have no swimming as this is SATs week.
Enjoy the long weekend.
Mrs W
Posted 03/05/2024
by Anthea Hillman
Reading
We have been lucky enough to buy some new and exciting books for readers at all levels in school
and nursery. In addition to this, specialists from the Cornwall Library Service recently came in and
reviewed and restocked our school library. Your child will today come home with a letter about
reading in our school, the books they can choose and how you can help them at home. The letter is
also attached to this blog.
Sun Safety
With bank holidays coming up and hopefully some good weather, we have this week had an
assembly on staying sun safe. Here is a list of 5 top tips to help keep young people safe in the sun,
put together by Macmillan Cancer Support, which we shared with the children
https://www.soltansunready.com/for-schools/newsletter-sun-safety-top-tips
Please ensure your child comes into school after the bank holiday with a sun hat and sun cream (at
least factor 30.) If you have any spare sun hats which your child has outgrown, please send them in
so we have spares in school.
Beach Safety
Two lifeguards from the RNLI visited us this morning to hold an assembly about how to stay safe on
the beach. They enlisted the help of pupils to demonstrate how to get help if they get into trouble in
the sea. They also discussed where it is and isn’t safe to swim and what to do if you are caught in a
riptide.
Wedding Bells You may have heard from the children that Miss Gibbings is getting married this weekend. I am sure you will join me in wishing her and her husband to be all the best for the future. On her return to work next week Miss Gibbings will be known as Mrs Wilkie.
Have a lovely Bank Holiday weekend. We look forward to seeing the children back in school on Tuesday morning.
Mrs Hillman
Posted 03/05/2024
by Donna Clayson
Over the last two weeks we have continued our topic based on' The World Outside our Window' by exploring a contrasting place to where we live in Cornwall - the continent of Africa! We started by reading Handa's Surprise and discussed the setting and characters in the story. This led us to learning a wide range of facts all about Africa. We have looked at the 'big 5' animals that can be found there, what a carnivore, herbivore and an omnivore is, the different types of homes that are there, the climate and the lovely fruits that Handa had in her basket. We really have been busy bees!
In maths, we have been blown away with how well they are getting on with learning their numbers up to 20. This week we have had a particularly focus on 1 more and 1 less of numbers up to 20. The children have been true 'Have a Go Hippos' in their perseverance to understand this concept, and they are becoming more and more confident with this. Also, to help us recognise the numbers up to 20, we have been having a little game of bingo. Ask the children to tell you all about it! They absolutely love it and ask to play everyday!
Reminders -
Posted 03/05/2024
by Ben Heasman-Langley
What a gruesomely fun week we have had!
English:
We finished our instruction writing about how to make a gruesome smoothie this week. They were disgusting yet fantastic to read. We finished the week by going to the garden TO follow our instructions. What wonderfully sickening creations your children made… YUM!
Maths:
Year 4 finished their first decimals unit and are moving to their second unit next week. They have got really effective at dividing 1- and 2-digit numbers by 10 and 100.
Year 5 have also finished their unit on shape and are ready to move onto decimals next week. They have become experts at finding angles!
PE:
Has been great fun as ever! Orienting games have enhanced and badminton has moved onto backhands. We’ve continued to look at positional awareness and aiming the shuttlecock into space.
Art:
We have looked at many different ways of making collage effective. We’ve been experimenting with layering and practicing different ways of cutting, tearing and manipulating the resources.
Science:
Talland investigated which material was the best insulator. We used bubble wrap, cellophane and tin foil. Why not ask your child what we did during our experiment…
CONGRATULATIONS:
Well done to Tabbi for being chosen as pupil of the week – her involvement during class discussions have been excellent this week. Also congratulations to all of our readers, writers and mathematicians of the week:
Mathematicians:
Isaac and Sienna
Writers:
Henry and Harrison
Readers:
Leo and Freddie
That’s it from Talland. We hope you have a fantastic 3 day weekend - YAY!
Signing off from Mr. Langley, Mr. Bishop and Mrs. Hodge.
Posted 03/05/2024
by Helen King
In Maths, we have been learning some more about fractions - finding a third, the whole and about unit and non-unit fractions... We finally finished our own stories in the style of Christopher Nibble - we are really pleased with our stories and shared them with our learning partners.
Lantic Class have also been busy scientists this week. The children have been learning about the parts of a plant. We had some very successful labelled diagrams of violas and busy lizzies and we have learnt how to identify some flowers like poppies, pansies and buttercups.
Next week's blog will include some photos from our Porfell Trip.
Posted 03/05/2024
by Emily Randle
This week has been a busy one!
We are writing up our explanation texts on the seven life processes in English, which is part of our enquiry into what all living things have in common. We have learnt so much so far, including just how amazing a plant's respiration is. I can't wait to read the finished pieces!
Mrs Butlin introduced Chaipel to keyboards this week in Music and we are looking forward to learning how to play a short piece in the coming weeks.
SATs are fast approaching and so on Thursday, the Y6 girls were invited to a 'tea, cake and natter' afternoon with Miss Randle and Mrs Hillman. It was a lovely treat, looking at old photographs and reminiscing about their experiences together, both in and out of school. The Y6 boys will get their opportunity next week.
The RNLI were in on Friday morning to remind us how to stay safe on the beach and in the water this Summer. We had fun and learnt a great deal at the same time. Well done to Verity and Max who were our RNLI lifeguard and 'swimmer in distress'!
We were exploring Micro:bits in Computing this afternoon and although some of us are currently in The Learning Pit (Miss Randle and Mrs Clary also) we are excited to see how we will progress over the next few weeks as we build up to measuring and recording temperature, creating spreadsheets and representing findings in a bar chart, pie chart or line graph (depending on the nature of the investigation).
CONGRATULATIONS to Chaipel's People of the Week, Noah and Max S for showing their Bridge 'excellent' value in their learning this week.
REMEMBER... it's a three day weekend so relax, enjoy and see you all on Tuesday!!
Miss Randle, Mrs Clary and Miss Gilbert.
Posted 03/05/2024
by Luke O Dwyer
A busy couple of weeks!
It’s all go with our new topic, ‘Did the Cornish do a Proper
Job?’ The children have completed Geography lessons where they located
Wadebridge on a map and explored its locality within Cornwall. They then looked
at map symbols and used this knowledge to make their own maps of Wadebridge!
This week we have been Historians and explored the history
of the railway in our local area. The children learned that Bodmin and Wenford
Railway had a branch line that went through Wadebridge and into Padstow. They
were shocked to learn that the Camel trail was once a railway, and is now used
by over 500,000 cyclists per year! We then learnt all about Tin Mines and the Tin Miners - the children had to find posters dotted around the classroom to add facts to their Tin Min Fact File.
In PE we have been fortunate enough to have DT Coaching
leading our lessons. They have been working on the pupils Striking and Fielding
skills. They will spend a few weeks working on catching and throwing skills
before being introduced to modified Cricket and Rounders games.
We are nearing the end of our English unit about the story,
‘The Mousehole Cat’. The children have been busy writing their own versions of
the story, and adapting characters and settings. They have been using the 'Boxing up' technique for writing and planning each paragraph before writing it. We are so impressed with their
use of vocabulary, adjectives, adverbs and sentence structures!
In maths we are learning about time – a tricky concept at
this age, but Year 2 are taking on the challenge! It has been wonderful to hear
the children tell each other what time it is throughout the school day!
Please keep up with the reading and times table rockstars at
home, it really does make a difference.
Thank you,
The Year 2 Team
Posted 03/05/2024
by Thomas Hazlewood
We were really pleased to be invited by Cornish Heritage to join them in the St Cleer well dressing ceremony. After last year, we were also pleased that it didn't chuck it down with rain!!
Our class had worked with a local artist to produce a fantastic collage of the well, and we were excited to process through the village to the well. We took part in a small ceremony, laid flowers on the well wall and watched some traditional Cornish dancing. We were interested (and a bit confused) that half of the ceremony was conducted in the Cornish language. We agreed that we'd need a bit of practice before we could understand any of it!
We'd like to say a big thank you to Cornish Heritage for all of their support in making the day a success.
Posted 03/05/2024
by Thomas Hazlewood
This week in maths we have been learning about perimeter and area of 2D shapes. We learned how to calculate perimeter in different ways, and how we can use information we are given to calculate the length of any sides of the shape where the dimensions are missing. We applied our understanding to regular shapes and also to rectilinear shapes.
Once we were confident with perimeter, we learned how to calculate the area of different rectangles and rectilinear shapes. To apply our learning we used an adaptive teaching software called Learning by Questions (LbQ). The children really loved the different types of questions they were asked and also that they had visual representations of the problems to help them master the concepts of perimeter and area.
We all wanted to use LbQ every day - which Mr H didn't allow!
Posted 03/05/2024
by Lauren Howell
Lanlivery Primary Academy were deeply saddened to hear the tragic news about one of our pupils, Dexter. He will be remembered as smiley, kind and caring; a great friend to all of his class and the whole school. He loved to play, learn and get creative and it is hard to envisage our school without him.
We will miss him dearly and our thoughts are with his mum, dad, siblings, whole family and wider community. We are working with professionals trained to provide the very best support for pupils, parents and staff at this difficult time.
Posted 03/05/2024
by Joanne Pentreath
Today we learnt all about invertebrates and how to classify them. We went on an exciting 'invertebrate hunt' around the school grounds where we observed characteristics and then drew precise labelled diagrams!
Posted 03/05/2024
by Sarah Evans
April has been a short month due to the Easter holidays but we have still managed to pack in lots of learning.
In English we have been learning about stories by the same author, Lauren Child. We have been enjoying her Clarice Bean stories and are currently working on planning our own.
Maths has been all about fractions so far this term. We have learnt how to recognise and find equal groups, recognise and find a half, a quarter and three quarters of a shape and a quantity.
Our big question this half term is 'Who was Francis Drake and why was he important?'
We have enjoyed finding out about his voyages and learnt some grisly facts about life on the 'Golden Hind'
Most of us have seen his statue in Tavistock so we know he is important locally. We are looking forward to our trip to Buckland Abbey to find out more.
Art has been all about Vincent van Gogh. We have been looking at his paintings and discussing what we notice and like/don't like about them.
We have learnt about tints and shades and have experimented with colours and patterns in his style. Next we will be trying to reproduce his 'Starry Night' painting for our art exhibition at the end of May.
Science has been all about plants. We had fun dissecting seeds and comparing them to bulbs. Then we planted some seeds with varying amounts of light and water and are waiting to see what will happen to them.
Posted 03/05/2024
by Chris Wathern
Courage
At the start of our Shining Stars Assembly today, we were treated to hearing music performed by Oscar, Phoebe, Imogen, Hana and Merryn.
The theme this week has been ‘Courage’ and it was fantastic to see the children show this in abundance taking to the stage to play in front of everyone. We look forward to offering this regular slot in our Shining Stars Assembly for children to showcase their skills. I know many of the children are very keen to sign up.
Teachers also recognised other acts of courage this week across the school. It is something we will continue to remind children of and support them with; especially to speak up (politely) for what they believe in or where they see unfairness.
The range and quality of learning around the classes this week has been impressive. I’ve seen amazing letter writing ‘from the trenches’ in Year 6 to Year 3 writing their own version of the Sand Horse story. Equally impressive has been the amazing Modroc artwork in Year 5.
A special well done to our youngest learners in the school (and a huge thank you to the staff) as they began the process of moving classrooms, as we re-purpose our EYFS environment. They have taken these changes in their stride.
Next week, one of the areas I want to explore further is the experience our children have at playtime and lunchtime. It’s such a crucial part of our children’s experience at school that I’m keen to see what is working well and what can be improved. I’ll be following this up with a discussion with the School Council to get their invaluable feedback.
House Points
Congratulations to this week’s winners, Puffins, earning 439 points. Our overall leaders this year so far are Choughs with an impressive 10,301 points!
Donation
We are really grateful to the Padstow Harbour Commissioners for their generous donation of £1000! We will be considering how best to use this for the benefit of our children.
Events next week
Monday 6th May Bank Holiday (School closed)
Tuesday 7th May 14:30-15:15 KS2 Parents/Carers Coffee Afternoon with Mr Wathern (Hall)
Tuesday 7th May 15:25 Year 4 Porthpean Residential Meeting for parents (4B classroom)
Thursday 9th May 08:45-09:30 EYFS/KS1 Parents/Carers Coffee Morning with Mr Wathern (Hall)
Thursday 9th May 14:15-15:00 EYFS/KS1 Parents/Carers Coffee Afternoon with Mr Wathern (Hall)
Friday 10th May Year 3 Alternative Sports Day
Friday 10th May 08:45-09:30 KS2 Parents/Carers Coffee Morning with Mr Wathern
Have a relaxing long weekend and we look forward to seeing everyone back next Tuesday.
Best wishes,
Chris Wathern
Posted 03/05/2024
by Sara Mckillop
Posted 03/05/2024
by Sara Mckillop
We really enjoyed our Science lesson this week, as we were learning about invertebrates. We went on an invertebrate hunt around the school grounds and found many creatures in their microhabitats. We took photographs, drew them and then classified them!
We are looking forward to some Scientists joining us later in the term to do more on this topic in more depth!
Creative
We are bold and innovative in our approach to find new solutions to the challenges we face.
Curious
We are inspired by the awe and wonder of the world.
Responsible
We take responsibility for our actions in an environment of mutual respect.
Enthusiastic
We are passionate about learning.
Excellent
We are the best we can be.
Determined
We overcome all barriers to reach our potential, developing a capacity to improve further.
© 2024 Bridge Schools trust is a company limited by guarantee, registered in England and Wales. Registration number 7736425. It is an exempt charity.